Sense of Place

This document was created to assist instructors in transferring feelings and experiences from students at IslandWood back to their schools and communities. This document should be viewed as a resource to be enhanced and deepened by further additions. (Download a PDF version of this page.

Contents

Definitions

There are many definitions regarding “Sense of Place” and we especially liked the definition below along with the diagram. The full research article explaining the diagram can be found in the resources section.

“Sense of place does not describe only a physical reality—rather it represents belief in the spirit of a locale, the living force that makes “undifferentiated space [become] place as we get to know it better and endow it with value “” (Tuan, 1977, p. 6, Ardoin 2006)